March 5, 2006
The Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team had four student-athletes competing in two different meets over the weekend. Junior Tim Kegelman (Yorktown, Va./Tabb) swam at the 2006 Speedo American Short Course Championship in Austin, Texas on Thursday. Fellow juniors Nick Fanslau (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn), Brian Freeman (Sanger, Calif./Immanuel) and sophomore Andrew MacKay (Georgetown, Grand Cayman/Cayman Prep) all competed at the Boiler Make-It Invitational in West Lafayette, Ind. on Sunday.
Kegelman became the first swimmer in program history to compete in the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships as he did so last year in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly and the 200-yard IM. He went to the 2006 Speedo American Short Course Championships in hopes of lowering his 2006 NCAA `B’ cut time of 48.47 in the 100-fly. He would post a time of 49.38 in the preliminaries and lower that time with a mark of 48.97 in the finals to place eighth overall, yet he could not improve on his season-best time.
Fanslau took to the pool in the Boilermaker Aquatic Center for the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle. He swam a time of 50.37 in the 100-fly prelims and posted a mark of 1:40.16 in the 200-free finals to place second of four swimmers.
Freeman swam the 100-yard freestyle, 50-yard free and 100-yard backstroke. The junior touched the wall in 47.16 and 47.81 in the 100-free prelims and finals, respectively. In the 50-free, Freeman clocked a prelim time of 22.03 and would lower that to 21.95 in the finals. MacKay joined Freeman in the 100-back as they posted respective final times of 52.31 and 52.94.
All three Fighting Irish swimmers at the Boiler Make-It Invitational were looking to gain additional experience in the pool and were not aiming for NCAA Championship cuts.
Notre Dame’s Tim Randolph (Crown Point, Ind./Merrillville) and Jay Vanden Berg (Holland, Mich./Southfield Christian School) are still waiting to find out if they will be among the field at the 2006 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Randolph has an NCAA consideration time of 54.47 in the 100-yard breaststroke, while Vanden Berg has a NCAA `B’ cut of 15:15.99 in the 1,650-free. Both of those marks were achieved at the 2006 BIG EAST Swimming and Diving Championships as the Irish captured their second straight title on Feb. 18.
Stay up-to-date on the Notre Dame men’s swimming and diving team by logging on to und.com or by calling the official Notre Dame athletics hotline at (574) 631-3000.
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